New Delhi: Bengal man held for hoax bomb threat emails to Gujarat schools, courts
The Ahmedabad Crime Branch and Cyber Crime Unit have arrested the prime suspect behind a wave of hoax bomb threats that targeted schools and courts across Gujarat last month, police said on Tuesday.
The accused, identified by the police as Sourav Biswas, was apprehended in West Bengal during a joint operation and brought to Ahmedabad. He was produced before a city court on Tuesday and remanded in police custody, a statement by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch said.
“This operation marks a major breakthrough in maintaining public safety and digital security,” it said.
The arrest follows a chaotic period in February when coordinated threat emails triggered mass evacuations. On 17 February, at least six district and sessions courts in Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Vadodara, Rajkot, Valsad and Mehsana cleared after bomb threat emails were received. Bomb disposal squads and dog units searched the premises but did not find any suspicious item.
Just a day earlier, 39 schools – 19 in Vadodara and the rest in Ahmedabad – were targeted, forcing thousands of students onto the streets. No explosives were found in any instance.
Investigative teams are interrogating the suspect to uncover the motive, potential accomplices, and technical methods used to bypass security protocols. Biswas used sophisticated methods, including a VPN (virtual private network), to conceal his identity, the police statement said.
The operation was conducted under the supervision of Ahmedabad police commissioner GS Malik and the leadership of joint commissioner of police (crime branch) Sharad Singhal, it added.
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